CU Study Links Earthquakes In Southern Colorado To Oil And Gas Production

A new study by the University of Colorado has found more evidence that links earthquakes along the Colorado-New Mexico border to wastewater injection wells, similar to human-caused quakes in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.

As The Denver Post reports, a paper published last week by researchers at the University of Colorado concluded that the increase in quakes since 2001 in the Raton Basin of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado has been caused by wells that inject wastewater from oil and gas production back from underground.

The paper found that the wastewater, which comes from wells that extract natural gas from underground coal beds, caused a big enough increase in underground pressure to make rock formations slip along fault lines.

The study also found that Raton Basin earthquakes were more widespread than previously thought – 1,881 quakes between 2008 and 2010. The biggest quake was a magnitude of 5.3 in 2011.

A new study has found that the most practical way to deal with leftover wastewater from fracking sites is to reuse the water rather than simply disposing of it. As StateImpact reports, the report from the Produced Water Working Group suggests that wastewater injection can be reduced by reuse.

The governments of Douglas County and Lawrence are calling for changes to Kansas regulations amid an energy company’s proposal to pump wastewater into wells in rural Eudora.

Among their concerns, the local officials argue that the public deserves a 60-day protest period — twice as long as the current allowance — when companies seek to operate such wells in or near their communities.

Douglas County Commissioner Nancy Thellman said the goal is “good public process.”

Financial analyst Frank Holmes recently wrote an editorial in Forbes magazine praising the ingenuity of Texas fracking companies. It’s only due to this ingenuity and efficiency, he wrote, that West Texas producers can remain profitable, even though oil prices are still hovering around the range of $50 a barrel.